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Shepperd promises open-door policy

The day after Tuesday's election, Lincoln County's new sheriff-elect was hearing from people wherever he went. Robert Shepperd, who has been with the sheriff's office for nearly 13 years and has served as the county's undersheriff the past three years, said he is relieved that the election over.

"It feels real good, just a lot of stress relief off my shoulders."

Shepperd will be sworn in on Jan. 1. He vowed he would be readily available to the public.

"If they have any questions my door is always open. I will keep regular hours. If I'm not in the office I'll be out in the county. I can't sit in the office very much so I'll be out quite a bit but if it needs to be, I can meet people wherever."

The department today has 17 deputies.

"We were real short," Shepperd said of his first years as a deputy. "There were times that there was just one or two deputies on patrol at a time and covering the whole county. Now we've got anywhere from three to five deputies on patrol at a time."

Expanding the force

But Shepperd said he would like to see the office expand further. He said he realized the county commission, which approves department budgets, is fiscally conservative. Contact has been made with a couple of the commissioners since winning the sheriff's race and Shepperd said he believed there will be a good working relationship.

"Try to get some more deputies and increase our patrols and increase being proactive. We are proactive but I want to see more proactive police work instead of reactive.

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I want to try to get ahead of the burglars instead of waiting until they commit the crime and then go take the report."

Shepperd said burglaries are a problem for Lincoln County because of the large number of absentee homes. He promised to keep a high presence of deputies in the Alto area.

"I'm going to say about 85 to 90 percent of all of our crimes are - I'm not going to say Alto proper. I classify Alto as anything on top of the mountain."

In Shepperd's mind that includes areas like Alpine Village, Sun Valley and east of Ruidoso Downs.

The use of illegal drugs is at the root of the burglary problem and other crimes, Shepperd said.

"I want to try and get our drug task force back up and running with cooperation with Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs."

Traffic enforcement by deputies will remain a lower priority.

"The county does not receive any money from traffic citations. It all goes to the state of New Mexico. It cost the county about $200 an officer if the traffic citation goes to court. In the subdivisions we will enforce all the traffic laws. But to be out on the highway, if somebody is driving in a manner to warrant being stopped, then they will be stopped. Our high priority is the property crimes and the drugs and stuff like that.

There will not be a Shepperd policy on a five or 10 mph over the speed limit leeway.

"If you're breaking the law, you're breaking the law. It's up to officer discretion. If they feel they're a danger to the community or to other people, they're going to get stopped and checked out."

In New Mexico, there is no requirement that an elected sheriff have any law enforcement experience. The position is typically administrative. State statute requires a sheriff to work at least eight hours per month.

"Which I'm not going to enforce because I'm going to do a lot more than that."

Shepperd said during his 13 years with the sheriff's office he has seen a lot of improvements.

"When I first came to work with the sheriff's office we hand-wrote reports in free-hand. We got computers. When I first came to work our units (vehicles) were worn out and everything. Now we get three new units a year. Some of our units have computers in them. Some of our units have cameras in them. It's advanced a lot since I came to work there."

Stationary patrols, where a deputy parks his patrol vehicle at a high-profile location with the engine turned off, will continue.

"I don't have any foreseeing in the near future of changing that because it does help on our gas."

The stationary policy was instituted by outgoing Sheriff Rick Virden.

Shepperd said he would soon begin to look at someone to become his undersheriff. The position will be filled from within the ranks of the sheriff's office.